Antipas' club tops in Denmark,Gutu sees red in Sweden

[Posted 01 Aug 2012][By Brighton Mupangavanhu]

In Denmark, Quincy Antipas' SonderjyskE have installed themselves as
pacesetters in the Danish Superliga and lead the table with 7 points
from three matches. Antipas, who bagged nine goals last season and was
the club's top-goal scorer, has already opened his account with a single
goal thus far.

Antipas was by far Zimbabwe's most outstanding Europe-based player last
season, and it was surprising, and remains surprising that his own
country's national technical team seems to be oblivious to his exploits
overseas.

In the current AFCON 2013 qualifiers, it was shocking to see interim
coach Rahman Gumbo going out of his way to field a player who was not
even making it to the line-up of the squad of the day at his own club,
Terrence Mandaza, who was on the books of Platinum Stars then, ahead of many Zimbabwean strikers
who were in better form like Antipas.

Mandaza remains a very talented player, and it is hoped that his move to
Maritzburg United will re-ignite the talent that we all know he
possesses, the same talent which saw him bag more than 40 goals in one
season in Botswana's topflight league, despite the fact that the league
may not rank as one of the most competitive on the continent.

Elsewhere, in Sweden, Zimbabwe international midfielder Archieford Gutu received a red card
for rough play in a league match between his Swedish topflight club
Kalmar FF's league match against GIF Sundsvall on 29 July. His club settled for a 1-1 draw result at home.

Gutu has begun to establish himself at Kalmar and even scored in his
club's Europa League victory in July. It is hoped that the red card will
not affect his chances of earning a starting berth at Kalmar when he
returns from suspension.

The former Ajax Cape Town player moved to Kalmar from Zimbabwean giants
Dynamos last year, and is in his maiden season in Sweden.

In Romania and Russia where the leagues have already kicked off, two clubs with Zimbabwean players are doing fairly well. FC Vaslui started fairly well on day one of the Romanian Liga 1, holding out for a 2-2 draw away to giants Rapid Bucuresti, before outclassing Petrolul Ploiesti 3-0 at home last weekend.

Mike Temwanjira, one of the main players for Vaslui last season was conspicuous by his absence from the line-up for the past two games. It is most likely that Temwanjira got injured during pre-season.

In Russia's Premier League, Musa Mguni is still battling for match fitness after missing a big part of last season due to an injury sustained while on duty for Zimbabwe's Warriors away to Burundi in Bujumbura in the Warriors' shock 2-1 loss in an AFCON 2013 qualifier 1st leg on 29 February.

Mguni is yet to feature for Terek Grozny in their first two matches, a draw and a win.

Zimbabwe did well to overturn the deficit, winning 1-0 at home to pip the Swallows on away goals' rule. Both of Zimbabwe's goals in the two legs were scored by Germany based attacker Knowledge Musona, whose new Bundesliga club Augsburg is yet to play in a competitive match as the Germany season is yet to kick-off.

Musona has however featured in his club's friendly matches against teams like Scotland's Celtic.

In Belgium, the Pro-League kicked off last weekend, and Vusa Nyoni's Germinal Beerschot started this season the same way they started last season, and suffered a morale shuttering 2-4 defeat to Lokeren at home. Nyoni remains a key player and played the entire match.